1. Technical Field
This invention generally relates to bovine health, and more specifically relates to the prevention of hardware disease in cattle.
2. Background Art
Cows feed by rapidly swallowing food, such as grass or hay, and later regurgitating the food and chewing it more thoroughly, a process known as "chewing cud". This process of rapidly swallowing food and leaving the chewing to later probably served cows well in years long past, when the need to rapidly consume grass before a predator happened by was more acute. The initial, highly vulnerable feeding could be quickly concluded, while the more time consuming chewing could be done in a position of relative safety with the head up and alert.
Unfortunately, that which was once an asset to bovines has become a liability. In today's typical farm or ranch environment, predators may exist, but they no longer pose a grave threat to most cattle. On the other hand, the typical bovine feeding process now presents health risks to the cattle themselves. Because the initial feeding is done rapidly, a cow will often ingest materials other than its intended food. If the material ingested is metal, the cow's health may be in jeopardy due to internal injuries the metal might inflict. Ideally, no metal objects would be available for ingestion, but the reality is that even the most stringent efforts to prevent metal from entering cattle foodstuffs (such as hay, silage, and grain) or cattle pastures cannot entirely prevent the ingestion of metal fragments by cattle.
Because a cow will inevitably ingest metal objects, steps should be taken to preserve a cow's health from the results of metal ingestion, which is known as "hardware disease". Hardware disease refers to the variety of detrimental effects that can occur to a cow that has ingested metal. While metal scraps in a cow's stomach can cause harm, the greatest harm tends to occur when the metal scraps pass from the cow's first stomach and into later stomachs and its intestines. Because it is generally impractical to remove metal scraps from a cow's stomach, the focus of hardware disease prevention has been to retain pieces of metal in a cow's first stomach, rather than allowing them to pass on to the cow's later stomachs and intestines where the greatest harm can occur.
To this end, a variety of "cow magnets" have been developed. In general, a cow magnet is a magnet placed in a cow's stomach so that metal fragments will attach to it and be prevented from passing on to the cow's intestines. In constructing such a device, several factors must be considered. First, the magnet must create a magnetic field sufficiently strong to attract and capture substantially all of the metal scraps found in a cow's stomach. Second, the magnet must be non-toxic so that it does it harm the cow's health. Third, the magnet must be able to withstand the corrosive environment of the cow's stomach for many years, as it likely will never be removed. Fourth, the magnet must be dimensioned such that it is not likely to pass from the cow's stomach to the intestines. Fifth, the magnet should be designed so as to be easily introduced through a cow's throat and into its stomach. Sixth, the magnet should be inexpensive to construct, so as to allow its widespread use as a preventative measure. Seventh, the magnet should be configured such that the metal fragments will gather in a manner that poses the least risk of damage to the cow's stomach.
While many devices have attempted to adequately account for these factors, none have successfully done so. The need exists, therefor, for a durable yet non-toxic cow magnet possessing a relatively strong magnetic field that may be easily introduced into the stomach but that cannot pass into a cow's intestines, which safely collects metal fragments while being inexpensive to construct.